[While Mello's definition of safety is killing anything that would harm the person he's protecting: he can agree to it. Is astonished L wouldn't assume it straight away, honestly. That night in his bed was a fluke; L was weak, Mello was drunk and horny from too-close contact with a woman who put every other female in that place to shame, and he wanted a comfort that he didn't realize — at the time — L doesn't have to give.]

[But he knows it now. Fuck if he doesn't know it now.]

I'll tell you to trust me, and you might say you'll make an attempt based on my actions.

[That's just the way these things play out.]

But you won't until I prove it, and the only way I can do that is if you give me time.

[And there goes the rest of that glass.]

And patience. I never thought we'd end up like this; it's not the dynamic I'd imagined when I daydreamed of you still being alive somewhere.

[Grim.]

It was different, yea. Business. You were my teacher.